(or how to move onto a sailboat)
With the advent of our 50th birthdays came the usual sorts of life evaluations that one goes through. At what have I succeeded? What contributions have I made? What do I have left that I want to do before I die? Living on the water was high on both our lists.
For any who share the dream, and for our family members who might not understand, this is our story. We don't know where it will take us, but welcome along for the ride!

Kintala

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Other people's mistakes

Posted by
TJ

The Z-car is, by any normal measure, a terrible car. I can't take a grand kid in it since Father State has decreed that all children must ride in a back seat while belted firmly into another seat. The Z-car has no back seat. Behind the seats is an open kind of trunk area that has a placard in it explaining just how to fit two sets of gulf clubs. It looks like a tight fit. (What it needs is a placard explaining how to fit tools, project parts, and and a weekend's worth of food in there.) It burns through tires, is noisy, and sprung stiffly enough to make Deb car sick - though that may have more to do with my driving then it does spring rates. And it doesn't like snow. (It is also the only car I have ever owned that I actually liked.)

You might have heard that, last week, we got a lot of snow. With trips this week ( it will be three hotel rooms, three rental cars, and sighting most of the Mississippi river from top to bottom before I get back to the boat) it would not have been good to get snowed in at the boat. Since the table project still not finished (but coming along nicely, thank you) the deck monkey stayed in the city and played in the shop all weekend. I like cold weather better than hot, but do have to admit that sanding away on parts while making clouds of vapor with my breath is getting old. It is better than having the sweat drip off my nose but, "sólo un poco más cálido, por favor?"

Not making it to the boat last week and traveling most of this week, it will pure joy to step aboard Kintala once again. It feels like I haven't been home in a couple of weeks which, come to think about it, I haven't. While on this trip I read a book called, "Overboard" by Michael Tougias. It wasn't a pleasant read for a wanna-be sailor, two expert captains who made decisions that cost them both their boats and one of them his life. My take is that these guys made a series of small but crucial decisions and seemingly minor mistakes that, added together, made it impossible for them to weather the storm. In the aviation world we call this an "accident chain". In these cases the chain could have been broken at the very first link if they had not been on a schedule. I swear I am going to ban calendars from Kintala. It is one of those books you read to learn from others mistakes.

Another link in the chain was that the boats were simply not set up for the beating the storm laid upon them. The resulting broken parts lead to them taking on more water than they could bail. (Electric pumps failed when the batteries went under and there were, apparently, no manual bilge pumps deployed.) That has me thinking about our new table. This thing has to be SECURE when it is up and latched and I'm not sure I have figured that out yet. (We also need to find a way to secure the floor boards, cupboards, batteries and nav station top.) As unwarranted as this may be I think I can make better weather decisions then was made by those in this story. Still, our "house" can get dropped down the front of a 30 foot wave and turned butt end over tea kettle. It shouldn't be if we can make the right weather decisions, but planning for what might happen is how one breaks accident chains before they wrap up a boat and take it to the bottom.

Is about time to fire up ye 'ol air sled and head off to the next place. That has me thinking about accident chain prevention in my work-a-day world as opposed to the sailing world ...

Before you buy a cruising boat...

If you've ever found yourself dreaming of selling everything, moving onto a cruising yacht and pointing it toward warmer weather and white sandy beaches, this book is for you. How NOT to Buy a Cruising Boat will help you to navigate the search and purchase of your cruising yacht with your sanity intact. Available on Amazon.com. Click on the photo to buy.

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Cruising Stats

Days since we left: 1345Days anchored: 387Days on the dock: 662 (includes free docks)Days on a mooring: 203Days in a boat yard: 81Overnights sailing: 12

Sailing Quotes

"The main reason that he wears a harness and tether is that doing so slows him down and makes him constantly mindful of the risks of going overboard as he works on deck and that, in turn, makes him far safer than any gear ever will."

John from Attainable Adventure Cruising on
Wilson Fitts
Why?
"It is not just because I love to sail, or because I love to travel. It is the desire to live a more simple life, a place apart from the gross consumption of the modern first world. The desire to teach my children respect for our fragile planet by living with a light footprint. The desire to embrace live in the now, and not postpone it for an amorphous 'someday.' "

Behan Gifford
"Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea."

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness"Who is staring at the sea is already sailing a little."

Paul Carvel"Find what and where you want to be, discard everything that doesn't get you closer to that and laugh like a school girl when you arrive."

John Loggins
"It is good to have an end to journey toward but it is the journey that matters in the end."

Ursula Le Gum
"Life is about having experiences and then keeping those memories. I don't remember what toy you got me for my fifth birthday but I'll always remember having an Easter egg hunt party. The matter of things break down but the nonphysical aspect of experience can't be touched. The memories we make are less frequent but they become more meaningful."